Phnom Penh stampede

The incident occurred at the end of the three-day Water Festival to celebrate the end of the monsoon season and the semiannual reversal of flow of the Tonlé Sap River. Initial reports suggest that festival-goers had gathered on Koh Pich ("Diamond Island"), a spit of land stretching into the Tonlé Sap, to watch boat races and then a concert. It was the third incident in the festival's history resulting in fatalities, though it was by far the worst; five rowers on a boat drowned in 2008, and another drowned in 2009. ==Incident==

The crowd crush began at 21:30 local time (14:30 UTC) on a bridge across the river, though witnesses said that people had been "stuck on the bridge" for several hours before, and victims were not freed until hours after the crowd crush began. more people were injured, some seriously, and many local hospitals were pushed far beyond capacity by the influx of victims. A journalist from The Phnom Penh Post said that the crush had occurred due to police forces firing a water cannon into people on the bridge in an attempt to force them to move after it began swaying, which triggered panic. Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said that the incident began when panic broke out after several people fell unconscious on the crowded island. ==Reaction==

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said that "with this miserable event, I would like to share my condolences with my compatriots and the family members of the victims." Preliminary reports released on 24 November stated that the incident had been triggered by the swaying of the bridge, which caused panic. The government said it would pay five million riel (US$1,250) to the families of each of the dead and a million riel ($250) to each of the injured. On 24 November, the government announced plans to construct a stupa as a memorial to those killed. On 23 November, the day after the incident, around 500 Buddhist monks visited the site to chant prayers for the dead. ==References==